Born at Nantes, 1763; died at Trieste, 1820.
He was intended by his father, a sea captain, for the merchant service,
but owing to his delicate health this project was abandoned. He was
sent to the Oratorian College in Nantes, and later to an establishment
of the same Order in Paris. He received the tonsure and became an
abbé; at the time of the Revolution he was a professor in the Nantes
University. He quitted the cassock, married, and proceeded to Paris.
In 1792 he was elected member of the Convention, and became intimate
with Robespierre. The King’s trial gave him his first opportunity of
publicly expressing his extreme views. He said in a speech from the
Tribune: “I demand the execution of the tyrant, for it would almost
appear as if we regretted our courage in abolishing Royalty, were we to
tremble before its wretched shadow.”
In March 1793, Fouché was despatched to his native town (Nantes), armed
with full powers to crush a rebellion against the Republic in the West
of France. He opened the campaign by a violent attack on every form
of Christianity, confiscated all ecclesiastical buildings, arrested
and imprisoned the priests, commanded the destruction of all religious
emblems, and ordered this inscription to be placed on the gates of the
cemeteries: “Death is an Eternal Sleep.”
He affected a disdain for wealth, writing to the Assembly, “Let us
abolish gold and silver and fling away all such idols of Monarchy!”
These deeds and sentiments caused his rapid promotion, and he was sent
to Lyons in company with Herbois, with orders to chastise with fire and
sword that recalcitrant city. The two commissioners inaugurated their
mission by celebrating a “Feast of Reason,” which, like that of Paris,
was a licentious and impious orgie. One of its principal features was a
procession headed by an ass, upon whose head was fixed a mitre, while
to his tail were fastened the Books of the Old and New Testaments.
An altar was erected, at which a mock Mass was celebrated, and the
ass given food and drink from consecrated vessels. A bonfire fed with
religious emblems and sacred books was extinguished by a violent storm
of rain and wind, which finally broke up the “_Feast_.” Upon the
next day the massacres of Lyons began. The tribunal decided that the
guillotine was too slow a form of execution. They therefore decreed
the condemned should be mowed down in batches by cannon shot. As many
as fifty-nine persons were on one occasion blown to pieces at the same
instant. During their four months’ reign in Lyons, over 1700 persons
are known to have been destroyed by order of the commissioners.
On the retaking of Toulouse by the Republican forces Fouché wrote to
Callot, who was charged with the administration of “justice” to the
rebels: “Annihilate _all_ traitors. Take Nature’s example, strike
and scorch as one does with lightning and thunderbolts, so that the
very ashes of the enemies of the Republic may disappear from the soil
of Liberty. Tears of joy flow from my eyes and inundate my soul. We
celebrate your victory to-day by sending 213 rebels to be destroyed by
the thunder of our guns!”
During his residence at Lyons, Fouché was denounced by Hébert at the
Jacobin Club; it was with satisfaction, therefore, that he saw the
former fall with Danton. When, in April 1794, Fouché returned to Paris,
after an absence of eight months, he found Robespierre at the zenith of
his power. When rendering an account of his services, Fouché ended his
speech with these words: “Criminal blood fertilises the soil of Liberty
and establishes justice upon secure and immovable foundations.” He was
almost immediately afterwards selected as President by the Jacobin Club.
On the occasion of the celebrated _Fête de l’Etre Suprême_, Fouché
had the imprudence publicly to mock Robespierre’s devotion to the new
Deity, saying _Tu nous embêtes avec ton être suprême_. Robespierre
impeached him before the Jacobin Society, and caused Fouché’s expulsion
from the Club of which he was President, but the 10th Thermidor was not
far off; and the execution of Robespierre saved the life of Fouché.
For a time the latter retired into private life. Two years later he
ostensibly joined the party of Baboeuf, the Socialist, but when he had
thoroughly mastered the details of Baboeuf’s plot he revealed the whole
of the affair to the Directorate.
After the execution of Baboeuf, Fouché obtained, as the price of his
services, an army contractorship, and later was created ambassador to
the Cisalpine Republic. After remaining some time in this capacity at
Milan he returned to Paris in January 1799. In July of the same year
he was nominated Minister of Police. Notwithstanding the opposition of
Siezès, Fouché retained this appointment until the establishment of the
Consular Government. Napoleon, who thoroughly appreciated the abilities
and understood the astuteness of Fouché’s character, made use of him as
his most confidential Minister until 1810.
The remarkable system of secret police which distinguished the
Consular and Imperial Governments was originated and carried out by
Fouché. It was he who discovered the plot of Georges; who prevented
the assassination of the First Consul by an infernal machine in 1810;
and upon his head, more than upon his master’s, that the guilt of the
murderous execution of the Duke d’Enghien rests.
Fouché was too wise and far-seeing to approve of the divorce and
re-marriage of Napoleon, and he particularly opposed the Austrian
Alliance; for this the Emperor never forgave him, and when he
discovered that his union with Marie Louise did not induce the British
Government to recognise his sovereignty, he dismissed Fouché, and in
1810 gave the portfolio of Police to Savary. Fouché was not, at first,
openly disgraced, but appointed Governor of Rome. Before his intended
departure, however, Napoleon ordered him to give up all political
documents in his possession. Fouché sent some insignificant papers,
declaring he had destroyed the remainder. Napoleon was furious, and the
ex-Minister was obliged to fly from France.
A compromise was arranged, and two years later Fouché returned. In 1813
he was appointed Governor of Illyria. In the following April, after
the first abdication of the Emperor, he returned to Paris, headed the
deputation which received the Comte d’Artois, and shortly afterwards
Louis XVIII. took him into his confidence and consulted him on many
points. He did not, as he desired, become Police Minister.
Upon the return of Napoleon and the flight of the Royal Family, Fouché
accepted his old post, but during the whole of the hundred days he
secretly intrigued with the exiled Princes.
After the Second Restoration, he was immediately summoned to the
Tuileries and re-appointed Police Minister, but he only retained office
three months; he had too many enemies in the Royal _entourage_,
and found foes among Liberals and reactionaries alike. He was made
Ambassador to the Court of Saxony, but the law of 1815--which banished
all regicides--deprived him of this position and drove him again into
exile. He became a naturalised Austrian, and died four years later at
Trieste, on Christmas Day, 1820. He was but fifty-seven years old, but
a life of excitement and mental overwork had given him the appearance
of extreme old age. He left a fortune of £560,000, amassed, it is
supposed, by subtle and dishonest means during his occupation of the
Ministry of Police.